Hi-Velocity Micro-Magnum!Roy Huntington

.22 tCMAuto

Looks can be deceiving, a n d t h e . 2 2 T C M from the fertile mind of custom gunsmith Fred Craig and his col-

laboration with Armscor, is not what it appears — at all. While looking like a hi-cap 1911 (and it is in basic design), it’s in actuality a bottle-rocket shooting auto launching 40-grain, .22 bullets

Armscor’s new .22 TCm offers sizzling performance, delivering a 40-grain, .22-caliber bullet at around 2,050 fps!

The .22 TCm has the added advantage of converting to 9mm by simply swapping the barrel and recoil spring.

Groups in .22 micro-mag (top-left) and 9mm (lower and right) tended to have a first-round flyer. nonetheless, groups

(with flyer) often hovered around 1.5" and as small as 1" discounting the flyer. (Targets are Precision

Plus, www.precisionplustargets.com)

46 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM•JANUARY/FEBRUARY2012

at upwards of 2,050 fps! Huh? What? No fooling, and perhaps best of all, it’s actually accurate, runs like a top, and if you drop in a fitted 9mm barrel and recoil spring, you have a fully func-tional hi-cap 9mm 1911. Damndest thing I ever saw.

Originally conceived by Fred as something unusual and fun, he initially marketed the design as a full, custom pistol from his shop, developing the car-tridge and load data himself as he built market interest. You might have noticed the ads in Handgunner. Fred said, “I really sold a lot through those ads, and had been working with Armscor to make a production version for sale here in the states. The President of Armscor, Martin Tuason, was excited about the project, and together we launched the .22 TCM. That TCM stands for Tuason Craig Micromagnum, by the way.”

Fred had spent the last several years working with Armscor in the Phil-lipines, honing their production of 1911-based pistols, and designing a few interesting proprietary models of rifles and other handgun designs for Armscor. You’ll be seeing some of those in the marketplace a bit later, and trust me when I say you’ll like ’em!

The custom version of the TCM, as sold by Fred in his shop, differed a bit from the production gun. It had an external extractor, a different slide cut and a few custom touches. How-ever, the production TCM is exactly the same, mechanically, as the custom ver-sion, and even comes with an adjustable Novak style rear sight, and proprietary custom forged slide and barrel. The slide and barrel are hand-fitted at the factory and more than likely accounts for the fact it shoots well. Also, the adjustable sight allows a shooter to adjust the point of impact when changing calibers. The 9mm shoots about 8" higher than the .22 Micro-Mag load at 25 yards.

Familiar PlatformThe operation of the .22 TCM is vin-

tage 1911 and anyone who knows 1911s would be right at home. Take down, external safety, grip safety, everything as a matter of fact, is exactly the same.

The frame is reminiscent of an early Para hi-cap, and everything shows solid construction. The finish is a basic Parkerizing but is neatly done. There are a few nice touches, like the bevel on the bottom edge of the slide, and the flat-top treatment on top of the slide, between the front and rear sights, that spiff things up some.

The short trigger is a smart move due to the hi-cap frame size and it fitted

interestingly, the .22 TCm (based on the .223 case) and 9mm both use the same magazine (18 rounds for the .22 and 17 for the 9mm).

my smallish hands just fine. This did not appear to be a simple conglom-eration of parts, but a gun that had been fitted and carefully attended to, making sure all the parts ran correctly. The barrel lock-up was stout, with no movement when pushing down on it in the ejection port. If you move the slide back slowly, you can distinctly feel the barrel come out of a snug lock-up.

Continued on page 87

“the operation of the .22 tCM is vintage 1911.”

The TCm in 9mm guise was a reli-able and accurate

performer, digesting anything Roy tossed

at it. it was particular fond of 147-grain

sub-sonic loads.

Rock island Armory is the 1911 branch of Armscor, and makers of the .22 TCm. note the short trigger, adjustable novak-style rear sight and nice beavertail safety. left: The fnh 5.7x28 (left) and .22 TCm share similar concepts but are actually dramatically different in handguns. The .22 TCm outshines the 5.7 by up to 300 fps.

left: Roy used a hyskore pistol rest and Caldwell portable shooting bench to target the .22 TCm. Groups hovered around 1.5" at 25 yards.

The .22 TCm puts 2,050 fps in a 1911-

based hi-cap platform!

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WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM 87

I like the standard safety, beaver-tail and crisp trigger, which breaks cleanly at around 4.75 pounds. The all-steel construction and 38-ounce unloaded weight means the .22 TCM rests comfortably in your hands and offers a solid platform when shooting. Frankly, at around $720 as a “combo kit” with two barrels ( .22 TCM Micro-Mag and 9mm) and two hi-cap magazines (holding 18 rounds in .22 and 17 rounds in 9mm), this gun is a steal. If it had a higher-grade finish, say, blued or some kind of 2-tone, maybe a bit of checkering on the front-strap, with the 2-caliber capa-bility and two mags, it could easily sell for $1,200 or even $1,500. I think it would make a great base gun for doing a bit of custom finish work, checkering or what-have-you.

Fun ShootingOkay, let’s just say it: the caliber

reminds me of the FNH 5.7x28, and you were probably thinking the same thing. Except actually — out of a pistol — the .22 Micro-Mag performs consid-erably better. With the FNH Five-seveN pistol (I recently tested one) I averaged around 1,650 fps with their 40-grain sporting load. In the .22 TCM, their 40-grain truncated load chronographed anywhere from a low of 1,985 to a high of 2,056. The bottle-necked .22 TCM round (based on a .223 case, by the way) fed beautifully.

The accuracy difference was con-siderable. My testing of the 5.7x28 sporting load at 25 yards from the Five-seveN gave, as I recall, 3.5" to 5" groups. Granted, the trigger was not exactly a target trigger and def-initely had something to do with it. From the .22 TCM, the .22 Micro-Mag gave an average of 1.5" at 25 yards, even though Fred says they guarantee them for 2" to 3". Interestingly enough, like many autos, I experienced first-round “flyers” in each five shot group loaded from an open slide on a loaded magazine. Generally, that first round would be 1" or so out, then the other four would nestle into a tight group. Some of those tight groups in the .22 hovered right around .75" and 1" pretty regularly. The good trigger and tight lock-up were an important part of that equation, I’m sure.

Changing to the 9mm was a simple as taking the slide off, slipping the .22 barrel and recoil spring out and replacing it with the fitted 9mm barrel and spring. Total time was about one minute and everything ran fine. The same magazines are used for the .22 Micro-Mag as well as the 9mm. Groups

.22 tcM AUtoContinued from page 47

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at 25 yards hovered in the 1.5" to 2" range, and I still experienced that first round “flyer” most of the time. Even counting the flyer, groups were aver-aging 2.25" to 2.5", still within the accuracy guarantee from Armscor.

As Fred warned me, the 9mm shot about 6" to 8" high at 25 yards, depending upon the load. Going through some 9mm I had, I found the TCM liked the heavier 147-grain sub-sonic loads a great deal, delivering the best groups with them. However, it also shot the 124-grain FMJ 9mm, manufac-tured by Armscor Precision, that came with the gun. The ammo was very clean and consistent, and looked like classic 9mm ball ammo.

The .22 TCM Micro-Mag ammo is available for $20 per box of 50, or $350 per case of 1,000, which is very afford-able. He also said it can be reloaded many times, and offers custom loading for $12.50 per box of 50 using the cus-tomer’s brass. He said they will be offering reloading dies and components in the future as well.

What For?A good question. I can say right off

the bat I really enjoyed shooting the .22 TCM. Recoil is very mild in both the .22 and 9mm versions due to the all-steel construction of the gun, and the accuracy is more than adequate for small game hunting out to say, 25 or 35 yards for rabbits and squirrel-sized game, or out to probably 50 yards for coyotes, ground hogs and similar. Once reloading components are available, it would be fun to see what you could really get out of this unique caliber/combo-gun setup.

TCM pistols and factory ammo are available through Rock Island Armory dealers and through Armscor Precision, Intl. in Pahrump, Nevada. Custom grade TCM pistols and other custom work, along with custom ammo — including loads with Hornady 35-grain ballistic tips and 40-grain self-defense loads — are available from Fred Craig, Atomi-tronx, also in Pahrump.

Mostly, I think this is simply a fun gun and would appeal to the small game handgunner and someone who would like to do a bit of experimenting with self-defense possibilities. The fact the 9mm change-out is so easy and works so well is a big dose of icing on that cake. I’m keeping this one since it’s already leveled the playing field between me and the herd of grey squir-rels constantly trying to take over our place here.

For more info: TCM pistols are avail-able from Armscor Precision Intl., 150 N. Smart Way, Pahrump, NV 89060, (775) 537-1444; Ammo and technical assistance: Fred Craig, Atomitronx, Pahrump, NV 89060, (775) 513-3962

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